Adios, San José!
A few months ago, Spirit Airlines, one of the United States’ leading ultra-low-cost carriers (ULCC), expanded its international network from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. San Jose, Costa Rica, became the airline’s sixth international destination from Houston, but the route was short-lived. According to Cirium data, the airline removed the route from its schedule in June.
Every week, Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, publishes a recent changes report, which shows what airlines have changed in their networks from the previous week. An analysis of this week’s report revealed Spirit’s cut, which is odd because the route was only recently launched. Service was launched with the Airbus A321neos and was supposed to run daily through November. Using the largest variant of the Airbus A320 family, the airline was set to transport between 10,800-11,800 passengers each month.
Photo: Spirit Airlines
Spirit is not the only airline flying from Houston to Juan Santamaría International Airport. United Airlines, which has a hub at IAH, also flies the route, sometimes up to three times daily. When Spirit announced the route, it highlighted that in 2023, nearly 1.5 million tourists had traveled from the US to Costa Rica. According to the Costa Rica Tourism Board, more than two million people in Texas alone are interested in visiting the Latin American nation.
Context
Things have been tough for Spirit Airlines recently. A few months ago, a judge blocked the attempted merger between Spirit and JetBlue, leaving the ULCC to move forward without JetBlue’s help. Spirit has been facing financial troubles, and the merger with JetBlue would have been beneficial. Spirit announced it was deferring aircraft deliveries and furloughing pilots earlier this month.
Aircraft delivery delays at Boeing have led airlines in the United States to pause pilot hiring, but Spirit faces a different problem. Airlines worldwide have been affected by engine problems with Pratt & Whitney’s PW1100G, leading to several aircraft being grounded for maintenance reasons. This led Spirit to make the unfortunate decision to furlough more than 250 pilots this fall.
Coming out of the pandemic, many thought that pilot furloughs were behind us. In the aviation industry, there was constant talk of pilot shortages, and airlines were aggressively hiring. So when Spirit announced its pilot furlough, it came as a surprise to many. A recent hire at Spirit shared that the news came out of left field.
Photo: Spirit Airlines
Unfortunately, this is business. Spirit has already lost money on the P&W engine issues and has negotiated a deal with the engine manufacturer to compensate for the losses. The airline revealed it would be provided with a monthly credit, improving its liquidity by $150-200 million in 2024.
As a result of everything going on, Spirit has been making significant changes to its network. A few weeks ago, Simple Flying reported that the ULCC had added more than 300,000 seats to its summer schedule, but just one week later, about the same number of seats were dropped. When asked for comment on the changes, the airline did not respond.
